Nippon Kogaku. Japan. Complaint - One an Icon. Now the epitome of arrogance.

TOKYO . JAPAN. 1 -- As a professional photographer with 45 years of exclusive loyalty to Nikon and with better than $100,000 of Nikon inventory the hard case for my cherished Perspective-Control Nikkor lens, tranformed within a period of three weeks from its pristine condition into a pile of white dust. It effectively collapsed.
Never mind that it was 20 years old. One day it was just like new and the next it became a manifectation of scrumbled compressed paper. None of my other same vintage Nikon Cases remained other than thae dy theu were purchased.

I returned the product to Nikon Australia and received an arrogant email response asserting that they had no solution and pointing me toward possible aftermarket suppliers. No comment whatever on the appalling abrogation of quality.

Over many decades wince WW2 Nikon achieved its pre-eminence by impeccable engineering and supreme quality and service. My My ! How things have changed. Nikon no longer has any appreciation that the "customer is king"; regards itself as king and treats its loyal customers with contempt.

They pointed me to the third party aftermarket for a solution and I found that solution in an all-things total alternative to the rubbish which Nikon is now dishing up. Nikon Japan has recently taken over Australian marketing of its products and has dispensed with the Maxwell Photo Optical Company which arguably built the Nikon image in this country.

How utterly stupid of Nikon Australia to direct me to its competition. C. R.Kennedy Company is the longtime Pentax importer - and the ethos of Kennedy's totally eclipses the culture of Nikon Australia and is the reason why one would want to buy Pentax .. and never again Nikon.

Nikon .. if this is the way you trear your customers - then your heyday is over. If the traditional competition doesn't walk all over you - the Chinese certainly will. It is just a matter of time - and indeed I forecast a very short time. Regardless - you've just lost me .. forever.

In your effort to be 'literary,' you've kind of lost me but let's see if I have this straight: A 20-year old lens case disintegrated into white dust. You sent it to the manufacturer. (How? Did you use a baggie to collect the dust?) They point you in the direction to purchase a replacement. It's a competitor of theirs. Maybe the reason they don't handle replacement parts is because the thing is so OLD!

You completely lost me with '...thae dy theu were...' Are you certain the lens is for a camera and not your eyeglasses?

Face it--your gripe is that they won't send you something for nothing.

Posted by Anonymous on 2009-09-07:

Exactly what Ponie said.

Posted by Ponie on 2009-09-07:

Thanks, MissM. It took me a while to try to weed through the chaff to get to the wheat. After about 15 minutes, I think I might have figured it out. Someone with differing ideas actually voted the complaint 'helpful.' ~~shaking head~~

Posted by Eloise on 2009-09-07:

Ethostaurt, The len's is twenty years old. Things tend to wear out over a long period of time. Stop your diatribe and buy a new lens!

Your extensive vocabulary is admirable but so is spell check!

Posted by Ponie on 2009-09-07:

Aha! He got you, too, Eloise. It's the lens *case* that turned to white dust, not the lens. I think. :)

Posted by Eloise on 2009-09-07:

Either way it's the OP who is behaving in an arrogant fashion. Don't you think?

Posted by Ponie on 2009-09-07:

I sure do.

Posted by Anonymous on 2009-09-07:

Does the OP truly want a 20 year old item replaced for free? Or he is saying he is disappointed Nikon could not replace the part themselves, instead sending him to an aftermarket company?

Posted by PepperElf on 2009-09-08:

"One day it was just like new and the next it became a manifectation of scrumbled compressed paper"

why don't i believe that? Oh because lenses don't fall apart into dust overnight. Oh wait, yes they do - in ExaggerationLand. I forgot about that place.

Anyway, so it falls apart after 20 years. If you're the professional you claim to be then you'd already know you should have been taking it in for overhaul long before then.

Posted by JR in Orlando on 2009-09-08:

Try that with a car. You want us to believe that you have $100,000.00 worth of Nikon equipment and used Nikon for 45 years and now you quit using them because the lens "case" disintergrates after 20 years? This does not pass the smell test - there is something else. I guess you will be stuck with the remaining $99,900.00 worth of Nikon inventory that you don't like to use.